January 24th: Nestle Aero Superpost

You may have noticed that Nestle have been busy since the turn of the year, with a lot of 'new' products being released across their Aero brand. I use the term 'new' somewhat loosely considering two of the three products have been seen before in past years, but with that I also bring you the first of my Easter 2011 product reviews .... in January :D ... I'm nearly as bad as the supermarkets who I hear began their Easter merchandising on Boxing Day.

Below you will find reviews of the Aero Caramel, Aero Orange & Aero Bubbly Lamb. All these products are now widely available across the UK, and I would love to hear from you all with your opinions. Please be sure to leave your thoughts ...

---Aero CaramelKcal 189 Fat 9.6g Carbs 23.3g

The most dedicated ChocolateMission reader might remember that this was a bar I reviewed back in 2008. Since then the bar became a victim of Aero's range cull around 2009, but as with the rest of the flavours that got canned around that time (Orange & Dark), it has made it's return. Before I ate this 2011 version I did take the time to read back my review from 2008 - to cut the long story short for you ... "Overall the Aero aspect of this bar (the airated base) was quite pleasant ... the caramel aspect of this bar was poor".

Frankly I could have cut and pasted the majority of that old review and stuck it here. The milk chocolate was it's steady self, whilst the caramel (what there was of it!) was still poor and lacked the flavour depth of most immediate comparators (Dairy Milk etc). I guess in a way, the lesser portioning of the caramel was a good thing guven it's poor quality, however this lesser portioning wasn't supplemented by any additional chocolate. Yes indeed like the majority of the mass produced products these days, this bar had just been reduced in size since it was last with us (now 38.0g vs the 42.0g bar of previous times). Overall news of this bar being brought back didn't ever excite me, and it unfortunately didn't surpass my low expectations.

Unlike the Aero Caramel above, the Aero Orange was never a bar that made it on the ChocolateMission rating system before being taken out of distribution a few years ago. For this reason I was more looking forward to trying this one than the other two products on show today - my hopes were additionally increased when my mother mentioned it used to be one of her favourite products from her childhood.

This bar is currently being sold in a 100.0g form and can be found (unless you are very unlucky) for £1.00 in most good retailers. The bar came sectioned in sensible sized blocks and I ate around a quarter of it to myself and then shared the rest amongst some of my work colleagues. The milk chocolate, well, ... sugary, milky and average are the words that spring to mind. Of course it was the orange aerated centre that led the mainstay of the taste - unfortunately like the caramel in the bar above it did very little for me. The orange centre melted with the expected delightful mouth feel and supplied a fair orangey fruityness to the initial moments in the mouth. To my disappointment, this initial pleasure was ruined by a strong undercurrent of sugar, which quickly made the taste sickly and impossible to eat in any satisfactory quantity. Fans of sweet chocolate will welcome it's return, but I won't be buying again I'm afraid.

6.9 out of 10

----Aero Bubbly LambKcal 145 Fat 8.3g Carbs 15.6g

I will keep this one short as I'm actually a little embarrassed I have an Easter product featuring on the site before January is even through :D The Easter products are being released increasingly early with every year that passes, it is all getting rather silly in my opinion (Boxing day!?? Oh come one!). Anyway, one of the new products from Nestle for 2011 are these Aero Bubbly Lamb, which you will again be able to find in most good retailers throughout the UK.

As you can see from the photos there is really nothing too special about these lambs. They are quite simply Aero milk chocolate, shaped as lamb figurines, with the typical Aero aerated centre (see Aero Orange review above for my thoughts on the chocolate quality). The lamb design will no doubt attract some interest from a younger audience, but for me this was fundamentally just an Aero milk chocolate shaped figure. Pleasant enough, but there are a million other snacks I would reach for first.

7.0 out of 10

----

As I said it would be brilliant to get all your views on these Aero products. Be sure to share your thoughts.